DARLEY, George. Nepenthe. A poem in two cantos. With an introduction by R.A. Streatfeild. Elkin Mathews. 1897
Half title, col. front. Uncut in orig. blue boards, paper label on spine; spine sl. faded, extremities a bit rubbed, but overall a very nice copy indeed. 61pp.
¶George Darley, 1795-1846, Irish novelist, literary critic, mathematician and poet. He was not particularly popular during his lifetime, but came back into fashion towards the end of the nineteenth century. According to R.A. Streatfeild, Darley's unfinished masterpiece Nepenthe was first privately published for a very small group in 1839; he records one surviving copy in the British Museum - the British Library has dated this sole recorded copy at 1835. 'Over a bloomy land untrod/ By heavier foot than bird or bee/ Lays on the grassy-bosomed sod,/ I passed one day in reverie...'